Klara and the Sun
A Heartwarming Film That Left Me Wanting More
Writer: Anya Duncan
There is a lot to like about Klara and the Sun. Taika Waititi's adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's novel is a very heartwarming film, with Jenna Ortega delivering a performance that does a lot of the heavy lifting. However, for a film directed by Waititi, I couldn't help but feel a little underwhelmed by the lack of the director's usual quirks. It is a perfectly fine film, but I found myself wanting a little more from it.
Jenna Ortega is easily one of the film's biggest strengths. Her physicality in portraying Klara, an Artificial Friend experiencing the world around her for the first time, adds so much to the character. There is something genuinely charming about the way she moves, observes and attempts to understand the world she has been placed in. Her toddler-esque stumbling around the house when she first arrives at her new home is a particularly effective example of this. Multiple times throughout the film, I found myself charmed by the way Ortega approached even the most mundane tasks as Klara. It is a performance that sells the character's innocence and unfamiliarity with the world around her, and the production owes a lot to her for it.
Unfortunately, the actual plot doesn't quite live up to the strength of Ortega's performance. Based on Ishiguro's 2021 novel, the film explores loneliness, grief, love and what it means to be human through the relationship between Klara and Josie, the unwell teenager she is purchased to accompany. There is plenty of emotional material to work with here, and the film certainly makes an effort to explore it. However, I didn't necessarily find myself blown away by any particular section of the story. The narrative felt rather uninspiring at times, and despite the film's emotional ambitions, I struggled to connect with it as much as I had hoped.
Don't get me wrong, I thought it was a very easy watch, and there is a heartwarming quality to the way the story unfolds. The film's exploration of Klara's innocence and unwavering devotion gives it a certain sweetness, and its focus on the emotional connections between humans and artificial intelligence is an interesting one. As the BFI's own description of the film suggests, it is ultimately concerned with what it means to be human, even if you aren't one.
Yet I couldn't shake the feeling that there was something missing.
Perhaps this is where my expectations got the better of me. I know that I'm guilty at times of asking for too much from the films I see during a festival. I am greedy; I want something devastating or impressive from a film for it to feel worthwhile. My review is a consequence of this feeling, and I appreciate that it isn't necessarily fair to judge every film by how profoundly it affects me.
Still, this is a Taika Waititi film, and I went into it expecting a little more of what makes his work so distinctive. His previous films have demonstrated an ability to balance humour with genuine emotional depth, often finding something wonderfully absurd in even the most heartbreaking situations. I was hoping for more of those trademark Waititi-isms here: the offbeat humour, the eccentric character moments and the unexpected tonal shifts that make his films feel so distinctly his own.
Instead, Klara and the Sun feels like a much more restrained affair. There are moments of charm, but I found myself wishing that Waititi had injected a little more of his personality into the material. Perhaps the source material's meditative approach to loneliness and humanity called for a gentler touch, but I couldn't help feeling that the film played things a little too safe.
My main entertainment throughout this feature was observing the religious psychosis that Klara goes through with the sun. Her unwavering belief in its power, and the way she builds her understanding of the world around it, is one of the more fascinating aspects of her character. It was amusing to watch her navigate these beliefs with such earnest conviction, even as the film asks us to take her emotional journey seriously. I would have happily spent more time exploring this peculiar aspect of her character.
Ultimately, I think Klara and the Sun is a perfectly fine film. Ortega's performance is charming, the story is heartwarming, and there is enough here to make for an enjoyable couple of hours. But knowing how good Ishiguro's novel is, and knowing what Waititi is capable of as a filmmaker, I couldn't help feeling disappointed by the result.
If I had seen this outside of a film festival setting, would I have liked it more? Maybe. Festival viewing has a funny way of making you greedy for something extraordinary, and perhaps I was expecting too much. Even so, I left feeling a little underwhelmed. It's a perfectly pleasant film, but I wanted something more memorable.
And, perhaps most importantly, I wanted a little more Taika Waititi.
